This invention relates generally to video game equipment and more particularly to a golf video game input device.
Advances in video graphics and computing have allowed video games to become more realistic. High performance microprocessors combined with high resolution color displays produce almost life-like video images. Although the image generation capability of video games has increased dramatically, the realism of most video games is limited by the ability of the game to receive realistic input stimuli.
Most video games operable on personal computers rely on a keyboard or joystick to provide input stimuli to the video game. The keyboard has the advantage of providing a plurality of unique alphanumeric inputs. The keyboard, however, is not a realistic input device. In a video golf game, for example, the `j` and `k` keys can be used to start and stop a golf swing, respectively. Although the keyboard allows for accurate timing of events, critical information concerning characteristics of the swing is lost, such as the speed and accuracy of the shot. Typically, the golf video games derive such swing characteristic information from the timing of the swing, although this is a coarse approximation.
Preferably, a golf video game would use a golf club as an input stimulus device rather than a keyboard or other input stimulus device such as a joystick. Using a golf club as an input device would allow the video golf game to more realistically calculate a path of the golf ball resulting from the user's actual swing.
There currently exist apparatus for detecting club swing characteristics. However, these golf swing detectors are not used in connection with video golf games because of the complexity and expense of the swing detector. Instead, the swing detectors are employed primarily as a golf instruction aid, where expense is less of a barrier.
An additional problem with using existing golf swing detectors in a video game system is that the number of signals produced by the swing detectors exceeds the input capacity of existing game cards. Game cards are used to couple conventional game input devices, e.g., joystick, to the personal computer. The game cards have a limited number of analog input lines and a limited number of discrete input lines. Industry standard game cards have four analog input lines and four discrete input lines. Thus, if a game card is used, the number of video game input device output signals that can be communicated to the personal computer simultaneously is constrained by the number of inputs on the game card.
A computer-aided golf training device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,906 issued to Takase et al. uses a vertical array of photodetectors to detect the flight of a golf ball, while club head velocity is detected by fiber optic detectors. Although the device can accurately determine the flight path of the ball, the complexity of the device makes it unsuitable as a video game input device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,566 issued to Haas et al., uses a plurality of electro-optical sensors to detect the club position at various points along the swing path. However, the Haas apparatus also is too complex and expensive as a video game input device. Moreover, it is unclear how the Takase device or the Haas apparatus could be modified to be compatible with a video game operable on a personal computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,850 issued to Wilhlem takes a different tack to detect swing characteristics. In Wilhlem, detection sensors and transmission means are built into the golf club. The sensor detects the swing characteristics and the detected characteristics are transmitted to a receiver by the transmission means. Preferably, however, the user would be able to use a standard golf club as an input device rather than the complex golf club required by Wilhlem. Moreover, the signal transmission is not in a format acceptable by the personal computer.
The golf practice apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,325 has been adapted to a personal computer for inputting swing characteristics to a video golf simulator by Sports Sciences, Inc. of Twinsburg, Ohio. However, the system requires a specially designed truncated golf club that projects a light image of a golf club head onto a sensing device.
Accordingly, a need remains for an inexpensive apparatus and method of using a golf club as an input device to a video golf game.